In recent years, the volume of print advertising to which the public is exposed has grown enormously. Boundless resources and ingenuity have been devoted to the goal of differentiating one advertising piece from others that compete for the attention of the same intended customer. In a society where thousands or even millions of copies of an advertising piece are printed and distributed to would-be readers, an invention that increases even slightly the percentage of readers who read it or respond to it is of value and utility.
One popular advertising device is the familiar postal reply card. A postal reply card can be used as an independent advertising piece, for example as part of a cooperative mailing program or can be bound or "blown" loose into a book or magazine, where it remains until the reader picks up the magazine and turns the pages. The average consumer is exposed o a multiplicity of such cards, diminishing the likelihood that each card will receive the full and undivided attention of the reader.
Another device described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,957,374 of Unger is a two-layer advertising mailer bearing the address of the recipient, comprising a separate ink blotting layer securedto a backing layer. In that device which is mailed to the consumer, the backing blotter layer is perforated with the intention that one may remove and return a preaddressed business reply card leaving the advertising ink blotter in the hands of the consumer.
Other double layer advertising devices are known but the perforated area as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,957,374 have had square corners. Experience shows that perforated areas with square corners cannot be easily removed in a reliable way without unwanted tearing of the material which makes them unsightly and difficult to use or retain. This is a particular problem when the double layer card is designed for use as reply post card and must remain intact once the area is removed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel double layer card useful as an advertising piece that has an improved likelihood of receiving the attention of the reader and yields an easily removable postal reply card suitable for mailing.